In 2014, China’s heavy truck sales volume totaled 748,000 units, falling 3.32% year on year; the accumulative sales volume for Jan.-Apr. 2015 reached 193,300 units, a sharp reduction of 33.52% from the same period in 2014. That was mainly because growing economic downward pressure led to a slowdown in fixed assets investment so that the real estate market experienced volatile adjustment, thus resulting in a fall in demand for heavy trucks. Meanwhile, China began to implement national IV emission standards in January 2015, which brought cost pressure to carmakers and increased the users’ procurement costs. On the other hand, the national IV standard-related facilities were still not well-equipped, such as insufficient denitration, a lack of urea supply centers, and less technical reserves of enterprises, which made some users take a wait-and-see attitude for new products, thereby, to some extent, restraining the demand for heavy trucks.

As of June 2015, there were three major positive factors in China’s heavy truck market that would boost demand:
New projects – In 2015, China will expand the effective investment and set up the promotion mechanism of major infrastructure projects, including more than 420 projects from 7 major project packages with a proposed investment of over RMB10 trillion. And shantytown renovation, railway, road, and infrastructure projects will drive the demand for civil engineering heavy trucks
Energy conservation and emission reduction – In Sep. 2014, China introduced energy conservation and emissions reduction program, according to which around 600 yellow-label cars and old vehicles would be phased out, which would expand to a certain degree the new demand for heavy trucks.
Logistics transportation – In 2014-2015, as China witnessed a rapid development in e-commerce, the express delivery demand grew at an astonishing pace, which brought huge demand for road transportation and logistics heavy trucks. Moreover, the development of free-trade zone will further promote the growth of port trailer towing vehicles, slag transport vehicles, and other market segments.

In the new normal, China is adjusting its economic growth pattern, and heavy trucks are undertaking the changes in profit model and product demand. In future, high-tech, high added-value heavy trucks will become the mainstream of development trend. Sinotruk, FAW Jiefang, Dongfeng Trucks, etc. have released high-end heavy truck products.

As one of the major three heavy truck enterprises in China, Sinotruk developed and manufactured the country’s first heavy-duty truck, and has successfully brought in Steyr heavy-duty truck production project. Its independently developed HOWO product takes a crucial position in the Chinese heavy truck market. In 2014 and Jan.-Apr. 2015, the company ranked separately first and second with the sales volume of 120,000 units and 35,000 units. In January 2013, Sinotruk cooperated with MAN to launch SITRAK brand, and with the support from MAN, Sinotruk has entered the field of high-end heavy truck with HOWO T7H and SITRAK C7H.

A middle and heavy-duty truck maker under FAW Group, FAW Jiefang ranked first in heavy truck market with the sales volume of 37,000 units in Jan.-Apr. 2015, with a market share of 19.13%, 0.78 percentage points more than Sinotruk. In November 2014, JH6, a high-end heavy truck developed by FAW Jiefang, was released in FAW Jiefang Qingdao Automobile and delivered to the first batch of users. The model adopts the mainstream Aowei 11L 6DM2 National IV engine of FAW Jiefang Automotive Co., Ltd. Wuxi Diesel Engine Works, representing the company’s top level, and will promote the overall sales in the future.